Battenfeld-Spanier

Kuhling-Gillot and Battenfeld-Spanier represent two estates brought together by marriage but produced by one winemaking team in one cellar. Their focus is on producing great dry wines from top Rheinhessen vineyards with a minimum of intervention. In doing so they favour the savoury and the mineral over the overtly fruity. The Kuhling-Gillot vineyards are located in the Northern Rheinhessen, close to the river, in the red slate heartland between the villages of Nackenheim and Oppenheim.

The estate’s history dates back over 200 years, though under different names: the family’s female side has run the estate for generation. Battenfeld-Spanier is a younger affair, set up by the ambitious Oliver Spanier in 1993. His vineyards are a further south, centred around the villages of Hohen-Sulzen, Nieder-Florsheim and Molsheim. Both estates are run to certified Biodynamic principals and without the use of fertilizer or pesticides. After hand harvesting, the grapes are kept on their skins for between 8 hours and three days depending on the vintage, before being fermented spontaneously. Vinification for all dry wines is done in 1200 litre wooden barrels, with constant topping up to minimize oxidation, the wines staying on their fine lees until the day of bottling. Of the two estates, the Kuhling-Gillot wines tend to be planted on slate soils while the Battenfeld-Spanier wines are all on limestone. The differences between the two soils types are rendered beautifully clearly because of the identical winemaking; the wines from limestone soils quiver with energy and cool minerality, those from slate tending more to tranquility and warm, fluid minerality.

2023 Vintage: Considering that 2023 was in the end a difficult year that flit between heat, rain and hail, it seems paradoxical to say that this is our favourite vintage here since 2019 but it is true. More complex, energising and spicy than either 2020 or 2022, with pumping veins of salinity and zesty fruits, lifted by a fine reduction and yeasty, smoky kick, the GGs from both projects feel less austere and more texturally satisfying than 2021, with what feels like more charm and better balance – at least at this stage. It also the year of the 2022 Spätburgunders – a truly excellent red wine vintage pitching ripe berried fruits with fine earth undertones.